1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid container removably mounted on a portable liquid ejecting unit having a liquid ejecting head for ejecting a liquid to an object.
The present invention relates to a liquid container removably mounted on a liquid ejecting apparatus having a liquid ejecting head for ejecting a liquid to an object.
The present invention relates to a waste liquid collection container for collecting a waste liquid sucked and ejected from the liquid ejecting head of the liquid ejecting apparatus, a waste liquid ejecting method from the container, and a cartridge equipped with the container.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a representative example of the conventional liquid ejecting apparatus, there is an ink jet recording apparatus having an ink jet recording head for image recording. As other liquid ejecting apparatuses, for example, an apparatus having a coloring material ejecting head used to manufacture color filters such as a liquid crystal display, an apparatus having an electrode material (conductive paste) ejecting head used to form electrodes such as an organic EL display and a face emission display (FED), an apparatus having a biological organic substance ejecting head used to manufacture biological chips, and an apparatus having a sample ejecting head as a precise pipette may be cited.
The ink jet recording apparatus which is a representative example of the liquid ejecting apparatus produces a comparatively low noise during printing and can form small dots in high density, so that in recent years, it is used for various printing including color printing.
As a liquid feed method for the liquid ejecting apparatus represented by the ink jet recording apparatus, there is an available method for feeding a liquid from a liquid container storing a liquid to the liquid ejecting apparatus. Furthermore, in the liquid feed method by the liquid container, to simply exchange the liquid container by a user when the liquid in the liquid container is consumed, the liquid container is generally formed as a cartridge installed removably on the liquid ejecting apparatus.
Generally, the ink jet recording apparatus has a carriage having a recording head for ejecting ink drops for moving back and forth along the recording face of a recording medium (an object). As an ink feed method from the ink cartridge to the recording head, there is an available method for mounting the ink cartridge on the carriage and feeding ink from the ink cartridge moving back and forth together with the recording head to the recording head (the so-called on-carriage method). As another method, there is an available method for mounting the ink cartridge in the casing of the apparatus body and feeding ink from the ink cartridge via an ink flow path formed by a flexible tube to the recording head (the so-called off-carriage system).
User's needs relating to the status in use of the ink jet recording apparatus are widely diversified, and there is a need for an ink jet recording apparatus for continuously performing a comparatively large amount of printing process, and on the other hand, there is also a need for a portable ink jet recording apparatus which is handy, small, and light in weight.
Therefore, if there is an available ink jet recording apparatus which can meet two needs for executing a large amount of printing and transporting when necessary, it is very convenient.
However, in the ink jet recording apparatus suited for a large mount of printing, an ink cartridge having a large capacity and a suction pump having a large capacity for sucking and ejecting ink from the recording head are necessary and the whole recording apparatus becomes comparatively large and greatly heavy. Therefore, it is very difficult to manufacture an ink jet recording apparatus suited for a large amount of printing in a small and light state.
Further, the portable ink jet recording apparatus must be made small and light to realize convenient transport, so that it is necessary to use a compact ink cartridge and suction pump, thus the ink cartridge and suction pump are inevitably reduced in capacity. Therefore, it is also very difficult to manufacture a portable ink jet recording apparatus in a state suitable for a large mount of printing.
Further, the stationary ink jet recording apparatus, compared with a portable ink jet recording apparatus, can easily adopt an ink cartridge having a comparatively large capacity and particularly, a stationary and off-carriage type ink jet recording apparatus can easily adopt a large-capacity cartridge. However, depending on the use object of a user, there still is a possibility that a sufficient ink amount cannot be reserved. Therefore, it is desirable to be able to supply properly ink when necessary.
Further, when supplying ink to the ink cartridge, it is desirable to keep the ink cartridge be mounted on the ink jet recording apparatus during ink supply. On the other hand, regardless of existence of necessity of ink supply, if a supply device for ink supply is always kept connected to the ink cartridge, useless occupation of the installation space will result undesirably.
Therefore, it is desirable to simply connect the supply device for ink supply to the ink cartridge only when necessary. Moreover, when the supply device for ink supply is removed from the ink cartridge, it is desired to simply ensure the sealability of the storage space in the ink cartridge.
Furthermore, even if an ink cartridge capable of smoothly supplying ink can be manufactured, if the manufacturing cost is increased greatly compared with the conventional ink cartridge, the value as a product is halved. Further, it is also requested to suppress not only the manufacturing cost of the ink cartridge but also the manufacturing cost relating to the supply device for supplying ink to the ink cartridge as low as possible.
Further, the portable ink jet recording apparatus must be made small and light to realize convenient transport, so that it is necessary to use a compact ink cartridge and suction pump, thus the ink cartridge and suction pump are inevitably reduced in capacity. Therefore, it is also very difficult to manufacture a portable ink jet recording apparatus in a state suitable for a large mount of printing.
Furthermore, in the ink jet recording apparatus, at time of the initial filling of ink to the recording head and at time of the cleaning operation for eliminating of clogging of the nozzle of the recording head, ink is sucked and ejected from the recording head and it is necessary to appropriately collect an ejected waste liquid.
However, the portable ink jet recording apparatus, as mentioned above, is required to realize miniaturization and lightweight, so that it is difficult to install a large-capacity collection container to collect a waste liquid. Therefore, in the portable ink jet recording apparatus, there is a possibility that a waste liquid may overflow the collection container when in use.
Furthermore, not only in the portable ink jet recording apparatus but also in the stationary ink jet recording apparatus, if a waste liquid collected by the collection container is ejected appropriately and the storage capacity of the collection container can be recovered, it is very convenient.